Because of You
by animewolfreak
Summary: Sakura is going through rough times and needs a shoulder to cry on. But Lee still has feelings for her, the only problem is if she can return it. COMPLETE
1. Chapter 1

Because of You

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, but this story, I do own… yep… nods

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The rain drenched a certain pink-haired kunoichi who looked down at the tombstone that inscribed the names of the ninjas who sacrificed themselves for Konoha.

The rain kept on falling, pounding against the ground and onto the tombstone as she cried. Her father had died a month ago, now her mother. Why did life do this to her? What did she do to deserve this? So many people were dying and she doesn't know any of them, but her parents were the closest people to her. Without them, she doesn't know how she would have grown into a proud ninja. Then her thoughts quickly turned to Sasuke. Why did he just leave her because she wasn't pretty She hasn't seen him for almost a year since he left her on that spot near the East Gate. "Sasuke… why?" She continued to cry. What would happen if somebody else close to me died? I'll just tear myself to pieces before depression takes me away from reality. Then, without a thought to spare, she wiped her tears away and ran deep into the woods away from reality, away from life itself.

As she ran she didn't notice a tree root sticking out of the ground causing her to trip. She winced as she got up and walked toward the closest tree she saw. Putting all the chakra in her hands, she took a punch on the tree. "Why. Does. This. Happen!" She yelled in between punches. Blood oozed out of her knuckles, but she didn't care, every punch was a relief to the strange feeling that was gnawing her stomach. The tree finally fell and she turned to another one punching out the feeling in her stomach. That tree fell also and she was about to punch another one when a green figure appeared in front of her. She threw punches at him, but to no avail she couldn't land a single punch. The green figure finally managed to restrain her from her punching madness. It was Rock Lee. "Sakura, stop!" But Sakura just tried to get away from him: she struggled, kicked, and even spit. Finally, her anger died down and she ended up crying on his chest while his bandaged hands stroked her hair mumbling whatever words seemed to calm her down.

Sakura broke away from him, "What are you doing here Lee? Have you been following me?" She looked at him angrily as if it's his fault for her being here in the middle of the woods. "I came to look for you since you weren't in your house," Lee replied quickly. "It's pretty late and I didn't know where to look for you, except where that tombstone was." His eyebrows furrowed in anxiety, "But I couldn't find you there so I just figured you ran off into the woods." Sakura looked at him, shifted her gaze on a rock, and back at him. "Well Lee, all I can say… is thank you." Sakura said eyes glistening with tears. Lee nudged her, motioning for her to walk back to her house. She followed suit, not wanting to be stuck here in the middle of the woods.

As they walked along the quiet streets of Konoha, Lee kept his pace the same as Sakura's. In the meantime they were silent, each lost in their own thoughts. Finally, Lee broke the silence, "Sakura, I w-was wondering, if you would like to go get lunch on Saturday?" Sakura thought about it, "I'm not sure Lee, I'm going through some issues right now. Let me think about this, okay?" Lee nodded in agreement. "I hope she says yes. She really needs the time to get out and enjoy once in a while." Lee thought. "May I escort you home," he asked. Sakura stopped and looked straight into his eyes, "I'm not weak Lee, you know that." She paused, "But I guess I could have someone accompany me along the way." Lee blushed lightly and looked away.

"By the way Sakura I noticed how your taijutsu could use a little more training." Lee added. Sakura shot him a look. "What was that supposed to mean?" Lee's face began to look serious, "I mean that your taijutsu is pretty fast, if you probably trained more in that area, you could fully excel to also become a taijutsu master." Sakura chuckled a little, "Well, I may not become a taijustu master like you, but I think my taijustu skills are good enough." Lee scratched his forehead, "Well, that's my own opinion, but if you're willing to train more on your taijutsu don't hesitate to ask."

They stop at her house and Sakura turned to face Lee. "Thanks for helping me tonight Lee. I really lost myself at that moment." She gave a small, hesitant smile then stood on her toes and kissed him on the cheek. Lee was a little dumbstruck. Then she turned and walked into the house. Lee touched the part of his cheek she kissed and smiled a huge smile as he walked back to his house.

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**So what do you guys think? I seriously need to start making longer stories (-.-'). I'm not finished with this story just yet so you'll have to guess what will happen in the next chapter _evil grin._ Well anyways, review please!**


	2. Chapter 2

Because of You

Disclaimer: Don't own Naruto, because I'm bad at story plots and it would turn out to be a disaster manga.

Attention: More characters will be together with Lee and Sakura so the story will change a little just to make the chapter a little bit longer and enjoyable.

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It was a nice, sunny day which is a perfect day to go on missions or to train. Sakura went to the training field where Lee was busy doing his 1000 pushups. As she approached, Lee looked up heart pounding with excitement. Sakura smiled, "Hello Lee, I want to have a word with you." Lee stopped what he was doing and stood up to face her, "What is it Sakura?" "I was thinking about what you said the other day, and…" Sakura paused for a moment. Lee held his breath. "Well Lee, I was wondering if I could join training with you." Sakura implied. Lee just stood there doing nothing until he finally stuttered, "A-…Are you sure you want to?" Sakura just smiled and nodded and then said, "You must be hungry Lee! Want to go get lunch from Ichiraku before we start?" "Sure!" Lee almost shouted out loud. "Oh boy, this day just gets better!"

As they walked towards Ichiraku, Lee's thoughts were jumbled with Sakura's newfound attitude towards him. "Does this mean that she's interested towards me? Maybe she'll…" His thoughts were cut off when Sakura said, "Here we are, do you want to share a bowl or eat separately?" Lee pondered on that, "I sure am hungry, but then again, this is Sakura I'm with!" "Why don't we share the bowl? I don't really have an appetite anyways." Lee exclaimed. Sakura giggled, "What a coincidence, I'm not really that hungry either!" Sakura gave the order, "One bowl of vegetable ramen please." "Coming right up!"

As they waited for their order to arrive, Lee said aloud, "Do you still like Sasuke?" He panicked a little, why did just slipped out of his mouth? Sakura's expression showed anger and sadness. "Oh man, what have I done?" Lee thought sadly, he didn't want to hurt the flower of his life. Sakura replied, "Lee, I don't know if I still have feelings towards Sasuke… I m-mean he just left us, you know? I think that if he ever comes back I probably wouldn't really think of Sasuke as my lifelong crush. I probably would think of him as is just a friend." Now Lee was really panicking, but because Sakura showed her true feelings towards Sasuke and he is wondering if she is directing her feelings towards HIM.

They looked at different things, but they somehow managed to look at each other. They just stared and leaned towards each other. "D- Do I really like Lee?" Sakura thought as she closed her eyes. Then, their order interrupted the moment. "One order of vegetable ramen!" the voice boomed. Sakura and Lee looked away, blushing madly. Sakura said thank you to the chef and he smiled at the both of them. "Well, uh, shall we dig in?" Lee stammered. They ate their ramen in silence. After paying and thanking him one last time, Lee and Sakura left to go back to the training grounds where Lee was doing his pushups.

"I guess we'll have to wait half an hour before we do something, I wouldn't want to throw up in the middle of training." Sakura assured. Lee shuddered at the thought of people exercising right after eating ramen and were throwing up. Before that half hour was over, the sunny sky became cloudy, not a good sign. "Oh shit, it's going to rain." Sakura noted. At cue it rained hard drenching both teenagers to the skin. "We've got to get to your house Lee! It's the closest shelter!" Sakura yelled over the thunder.

Inside, Sakura and Lee looked out of the window. "It's terrible that we didn't get to train today." Lee replied sadly. "Well, it's a good thing your house was close to the training grounds Lee," Sakura reassured, "it could've been worse." She looked at the state of their clothing, "Perhaps we should get out of these wet clothes?" Lee blushed at the thought of Sakura without her clothes, but then mentally slapped himself. Lee then grabbed some clothes for himself and gave Sakura black sleeping pants with a black and gray shirt that reached to her thigh. After drying and dressing, they decided to do something to pass the time.

They were in the middle of rock, paper, scissors when someone knocked on the door. Lee looked outside of the window to see who it was, but he could only see dark figures. "Sakura, I want you to open the door so that I can fight off whoever these people are." Lee said getting into his fighting stance. Sakura gripped the doorknob, "Ready?" She opened the door and one of the 4 shadowy figures yelled, "Wait! Lee! It's Tenten!" The figures stepped into view. Naruto, Hinata, Neji, and Tenten were drenched and had unhappy expressions.

They were ushered inside, dried off, and changed into new clothing. "What were you guys doing out in the rain?" Sakura asked. Naruto spoke first, "Hinata and I were on a date and we were going to Ichiraku to get ramen when all of a sudden it just… rained. We rushed to Lee's place because it was the closest one and we already saw Tenten and Neji standing by the doorway." "I'm guessing it's the same for you and Neji?" Sakura added. Tenten shook her head, "We we're supposed to be on a date, but Neji insisted that we go to the training grounds."

The four of them were hungry, so they had instant ramen. Sakura looked out of the window. "I wonder when the rain is going to stop?" she thought. Then she looked over her shoulder to a smiling Lee and hungry visitors. "Lee do you think we can stay for the night if it doesn't stop raining?" Hinata asked hopefully. Everybody looked at Lee. "Of course you can! I haven't had visitors to my house in a while anyway!" Lee replied happily.

When it got close to bedtime, each pair were assigned to different rooms. Neji and Tenten slept in the living room, Hinata and Naruto slept in the guest room and Sakura and Lee slept in his room. "Good-night everyone!" Naruto yelled rather loudly. "Good-night Lee." Sakura said sleepily. Lee stifled a yawn, "Good-night Sakura." Both of them slept back to back and with something in mind. "Sakura is in bed with me… I feel so awkward right now." Lee thought. Sakura however, was thinking about something different. Sakura looked back to when they were at Ichiraku and they almost kissed. "I'm thinking about Lee even when I don't want to think about him. I think I do like Lee, he's always there for me and he has such a sweet personality. Plus he's cute when he isn't acting "youthful"." She looked over her shoulder to see that Lee is fast asleep. "Tomorrow, I'll tell him my true feelings." Sakura smiled to herself as she drifted off to sleep.

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**How did you all enjoy this chapter? If you're smart enough, you'll know that I'm not done with this story just yet. This chapter is quite fluffy so I hope that those who were hoping for a fluffy chapter were satisfied. Please review, it encourages me to expand my ideas for the story. Thanks!**


	3. Chapter 3

Because of You

Disclaimer – Don't own it, don't own it, don't own it, don't own it

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The sun seeped through the windows and woke up the residents in Lee's house. Sakura was the first one to get up. "Ah, that was a really good night's rest." She murmured. She looked at the alarm clock that is next to the bed, it read 7:15 AM. Then she looked for Lee, but he wasn't anywhere in the house. "He's probably in the training grounds." She thought. Sakura went to the bathroom and brushed her teeth, washed her face, and combed her hair. As soon as she got out, Neji and Tenten were just waking up. Soon, Naruto and Hinata woke up too. "Well well," Sakura told them, "the early bird gets the worm so I get to have the last ramen in the cabinet." "WHAT? There's only one cup of ramen left?" Naruto yelled in the top of his lungs. "Naruto, just calm down, I was just kidding. Look at all the instant ramen in the cabinet!" Sakura opened the cabinet to show a couple of other ramen scattered in it. Naruto sighed in relief, thankful that he doesn't have to go through a non-ramen breakfast.

After eating, Sakura told the rest of them to stay put so that she could find Lee. They all nodded in agreement. Naruto pouted when Sakura told him not to open the doors to strangers. "You're treating me like your own little kid!" he yelled. Sakura chuckled at the thought of Naruto being so loud and childish. Then she went out to the training grounds. Upon arriving there, she saw Lee punching at the frayed wooden stump. (A/N I forgot what they call it, so I'll just say it's a stump)Lee caught sight of Sakura from the corner of his eye. "You're up early," he replied. Sakura grinned, "I had a really good night's sleep and your bed is very comfortable." "What about the others?" he asked. "Oh, don't worry about them, they're doing fine." She assured. Then there was silence which was accompanied by Lee's rhythmic punches.

"Lee, remember our training?" Sakura reminded him. "Right, let me just finish up my training, get some rest and then we shall begin your training." Lee exclaimed. Sakura sat and waited on a bench, watching Lee throwing the remaining punches at the stump. He went to where Sakura was sitting and drank from his canteen. "Why do I feel so tense?" Sakura thought, "Lee's next to me and I just have this strange feeling in my stomach." She watched Lee as he closed his eyes and leaned back on the bench. "He looks cute when he's sleeping too." She shook the thought away, "No! I must focus on my training with Lee, then I tell him…" "Lee?" Sakura asked as she shook him awake gently. He woke up all of a sudden and grabbed her arm. "S- sorry Sakura, I'm always alert, even when I'm asleep." Sakura slipped her arm out of his grip and grabbed his hand, "C'mon Lee, we've got to get back to the others." Lee was blushing and Sakura could feel some warmth creeping in her face as well. Then they walked back to Lee's place still holding hands.

Lee knocked on the door, "Who is it?" a voice yelled from across the room. Sakura slapped her head with her hand and thought, "Damn it Naruto, you're not supposed to let strangers know you're around!" "Naruto, it's Lee." Naruto's muffled voice can be heard clearly from the other side of the door, "How am I supposed to know that it's you and not just any Lee imposter?" "Sakura is here too." Lee added. Naruto opened the door and was met with a fist to the head. "Owww, what was that for Sakura!" "Let's just say it's a punishment on the whole not opening doors to strangers thing." Sakura said angrily. Everyone else sweatdrops at the entire situation.

When Sakura and Lee walked in holding hands, everyone in the room was smiling because they were happy that a relationship may be unfolding in front of them. Lee cleared his throat, "Well, the sun is shining and the weather isn't that bad. So I would really like to thank you guys for coming over." Each couple left, but not after saying thanks to Lee, after all, he was the one who provided shelter for them. Sakura stayed of course, mostly because she has training but she also secretly wishes to spend some time alone with Lee.

Sakura and Lee started training immediately making sure to stay clear from the mud. Lee may be eager to train Sakura, but he is a very strict teacher. He had Sakura throw punches and kicks at a wooden stump and to ran laps until she got tired. After all the torture and the soreness that was beginning to creep around her body, she sat at the bench, satisfied by the rest and the cold water from her canteen which trickled down her throat. Lee sat next to her, watching her drink the cold canteen and splashing it onto her face. Lee blushed and gulped at the sight, when he just couldn't stand it anymore he just looked away. "Ready to resume training Sakura?" Lee asked. Sakura nodded and stood up as if she trains like this everyday. "Now let's do a little spar and see how much you know of your taijustu. But, there will be no use of genjustu or ninjustu." Lee said.

The sparring began with Sakura lunging at Lee with a punch she was sure would connect. He blocked it with his hand and attempted to twist her in the air. Sakura landed on the ground in all fours and attempted to trip Lee who easily avoided it. As she stood up she looked around for Lee, he had disappeared! "Behind you," a voice said. Sakura whirled around and was lucky enough to miss a punch to the nose. She took this opportunity to punch him in the stomach which she just narrowly missed. But at this moment she was falling into the mud, she desperately tried to twist her body so that she wouldn't fall on the mud face-first.

Sakura landed on the mud with her left side and parts of her back covered with it. Lee rushed to help her up so he offered her his hand. She took it and _pulled_ him in. Lee was caught by surprise, but unfortunately he fell into it face-first. When Lee got up, Sakura laughed at his mud-soaked face while he wiped the mud from his eyes. "What did you do that for?" he said in-between spits of mud. "Oh, for no apparent reason," Sakura said innocently. They both got up and walked away from the mud and towards Lee's place.

While they were walking, Lee kept on trying to get rid of the mud from his face and vest. Sakura felt guilty since it was her fault that she put him in a situation so they, ironically, stopped under a cherry blossom tree. Sakura sighed and said, "Lee this is all my fault, here, let me help you wipe off the mud." She took out the napkin from her messenger bag and wiped away the mud from his eyes and his mouth. His eyes were closed and Sakura's stomach was doing a flip-flop. "This is it, I- I'm going to finish what we didn't get to finish at Ichiraku." She thought. She stood on her toes and brushed her lips on his. Lee's eyes snapped open in shock, but he recovered and kissed her back. They parted and looked at each other in the eyes, then kissed again. The next kiss was more passionate; Sakura put her hand behind Lee's head and pushed it closer for a deeper kiss. He gladly obliged and ran his hands through her hair, it felt so soft and silky. They parted, gasping for air then continued their walk to Lee's house, holding hands and with their bodies close together.

Once they reached his house, both of them got into the shower and washed the mud off of each other's body, kissing as they did so. Then they got out of the shower and Lee dried off Sakura then himself. He gave her some clothes and some for himself and both of them lay in his bed kissing furiously. Then Lee asked, "Sakura, why me?" Sakura looked deep into his eyes and smiled, "You were person who always cared for me and always appeared when I was in need for a friend. And you have a sweet and charming personality because you never force me to—" Sakura's words were cut short by Lee's kiss. Lee's breath softly caressed her cheek as he said, "I love you Sakura, I don't know what I could without you around. Really." Both of them smiled at each other and kissed one last time before drifting off to sleep. Today was the greatest day of their life.

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**Final chapter to the story, I hope all of you LeexSaku fans enjoyed it. This is probably the best story I've ever made so I thank you for your support and reviews. If you really enjoyed this story and wish for another chapter as an epilogue to this one, then please PM me by Sunday, August 18, 2006. I will check how many people voted for it and if it's over 10 votes then I will write an epilogue and post it in the story as the final chapter. Until then, please review for the story! Thanks!**


	4. Epilogue

Epilogue

**This story will be in Sakura's POV.**

It's been 8 years since Lee and Sakura found feelings for each other. At this time, the nine rookies were 26 years old, except for Lee's team who are 27. They are happily married and have children…

"Sakura, are you okay?" A worried voice asked me. I woke up, the baby in the crib is really robbing me of my sleep. "Yes Lee, I just can't sleep properly with this baby crying throughout the night." I replied with a yawn. Lee tirelessly flashed that goofy grin of his, "Our child will soon be running around, showing his youthful splendor!" I smiled, I still love that boyish grin of his, it reminds me of the good times back then…

I think I'm getting myself too far, I better tell what happened already. When we were about 22 years of age, Sasuke came back to Konoha from Orochimaru's grasp. He was surrounded by Anbu and was taken to Tsunade for further instructions since he was pronounced missing-nin years before. Tsunade decided that he will be kept alive, but he cannot go anywhere without an Anbu with him. I remember when Naruto and I came to visit him at his house for a little reunion. Sasuke said that since he didn't care about Orochimaru using his body for copying all the jutsus and getting stronger to kill Itachi. The year after our reunion at the age of 15, his brother had saved him from Orochimaru's grasp so that Sasuke himself would be the only one to fight his brother.

Sasuke had gotten stronger and killed Orochimaru and then Itachi. However, Itachi was glad that Sasuke made it this far, but he also told the truth about the murder of the clan. Sasuke did not wish to explain of what happened to the clan, but he can only say that Itachi was not the only one responsible for the murders. He then looked at me, he says that he is looking for a relationship with a strong female to rebuild the clan. I caught his drift, I should be happy that he finally asked me right? I told Sasuke that I'm engaged to Lee and that I'm very happy to be in a relationship with him. After telling him that, his expression looked sad, but he forced a little smile and told me that he hopes that I'll live happily with my husband-to-be.

Three years after our marriage, Lee and I (along with my bulging belly) went to Naruto's and Hinata's house because Naruto had something exciting to tell us. We knocked on his door and a very happy Naruto was smiling a large smile like the Cheshire cat and got us inside. Hinata was holding a little bundle, an adorable little baby boy who has his mother's indigo hair and his father's blue eyes. I asked Naruto if this was the big news he was telling us about. As Lee made faces at the little baby, Naruto told me that Tsunade will be stepping down from being Gandaime and will be giving the title of Rokudaime to him. I congratulated him and promised him that Lee and I are going to be there at the ceremony. Lee and I then walked home, but not before asking what Naruto told me. I just kissed him and told him that I'll explain it at home.

A couple of months later, I went into labor. Lee used his speed to get me straight to the closest hospital. I was surprised to see that Shikamaru and Ino were there, with Ino also in labor. "What are you doing in here Ino-pig?" I asked in between sharp breaths. "What does it look like forehead-girl?" She replied in a huff. It is strange that when we gave birth, my newborn daughter was older than hers by a minute. "Ha! Beat that Ino-pig!" I yelled weakly. Ino, of course, was just too tired since she gave birth to such a huge baby boy.

A couple weeks later, I went to different day cares to find the right one for our daughter. As I waited for someone to come out, I saw a boy and girl twin. They both had white eyes that looked so familiar… "Sakura! I can't believe I'd run into you here!" I looked up and I saw Tenten who looked happily at her children. "I believe these babies are yours?" I asked quite stupidly. "Yeah… Neji's and mine's as a matter of fact." She said. We talked for a while until Tenten suddenly remembered something. "I got to run Sakura, sorry. I hope we catch up sooner or later!" She grabbed her children's hands and gave me a wink before leaving.

The others are living a nice life and are very happy with their families and children. I look at Lee playing with the baby and smiling because I know he will be a great father. I wonder if Lee will inspire the baby to be like him, being full of youth? Perhaps she will…


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